The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-11-03
THE WORLDS BEST ROADS.
Magnificent Highways Found In British
Indfa-A Marvellous Road.


India-A Marvellous Road.
It might seem a good deal Ike presump-
ton on my part to assert that l am in po-
sition to pronounce upon the comparative
merits Of the worlds roadways better than
INV ulan living; but no reader who has ever
ridden q bicycle would doubt the assertion.
Having made a trail around the land portion
of the eartn's surface with q bicycle, can
nov take an ordinary map Of the world and
trace out from BEGINNING TO end OF that great
circle, where the road is good, where 1t Is
bad or Indifferent, and where it is execrable
The best roads in the world, many readers
will DC surprised to hear, arc in British India
After riding the bicycle 400 miles through
the Punjab, Dude and Bengal, am fairly at
q loss to fad words 10 express sufficiently my
admiration Of the enterprise that has bolted
India with such magnificent highways Is L
found there The finest road in nC:a Is
known as the Grand Trunk road; it extends
for 900 miles, an unbroscn highway of mar
veIO1Is perfection, from Peshawur, on tho
Afghan frontier, to Calcutta 1t is metaled
for much Of its length with a substance Pc
culiar to the country known as kunkah.
Knhah is obtained almost anywhere
throughout the unjab-underlying the sur
face soil. 1t Is a sort Of loose nodular deposit
converted into lime by burning in a kiln.
When rolled and wcttcd it cemcnts together
and forms road surface smooth and com
pact as an asphaltum pavement, and OF ex-
cellent wearing quality.
A valuable and peculiar property OF kun
l:ah is that the beds are constantly re-
plenishcd by natural processes born of some
favorable condition Of the soil After ex-
hausti!lg bed of kunkah the land is leveied
and allowed to remain untouched. After
few years the same land again yields G sup
ply of kunkah. In passing down the road
one sees big gangs Of natives repairing the
surface with liumkGh dug out Of the beds i'm
nncdiately by the roadside. At certain seasons
of the year the road overSecrS Of the districts
collect big gangs OF nlen and women and pro-
coed to repair such portions of the road as
need attention. The worn portions are picked
out to the bottom Of the mctaling and retilled
with rev l:un!lah neatly though it were
Il section of concrete pavement In city side
walk. A portion of the men carry the kun
Eah on their heads in wooden trays from the
nearby pit to the road, the women carry jars
of water from roadside well, pool or river.
The kunkah is spread, the water thrown over
it and another gang Of men lamp it down
with iron Hampers. In renewing whole sec
tloEs OF Toad LheSe hampers are SofleIlhieS
ranged three and four deep and stretch clear
across tho road, the order Of procedure being
one short step forward at every lamp. In
this manner the gangs pass up and down the
new made stretch several times, leaving it at
last solid enough to run steam engine over.
In some districts bullocks and heavy iron
rollers imported from England are used, and
sometimes the rollers without tho bullocks,
big teams Of mon taking tho place of tho ami
maI2-Tho1nas Stevens Lettar.